I miss my special friend, Mabel Pike!

I miss my special friend, Mabel Pike!
(January 16, 1920-March 5, 2012)

Born and raised in Douglas, Alaska, Tlingit elder and master artist Mabel Pike was respected as an Alaska Native Elder by her people. A lifelong Alaskan, Mabel was Tlingit of the Raven moiety, clan of Gaanaxteidi. Her roots went back to the Klukwan Whale House. She and her late husband Joe previously lived in Tanana and Be...thel before moving to Anchorage in the early 1970s.

During her time in Anchorage, her involvements included: founding the TAHETA Arts and Cultural cooperative group of Alaska Native artists; teaching beadwork at the Cook Inlet Native Association/Cook Inlet Tribal Council, the Anchorage Museum and the Alaska Native Heritage Center; presenting at the Fur Rendezvous Festival's All-Alaska Native Arts and Crafts Fair; serving on the Alaska Native Heritage Center's Board of Directors in Anchorage; teaching at the K-12 schools throughout the Anchorage bowl as well as in the communities of Chenega, Kodiak, Edna Bay and Togiak; and lecturing and teaching at the University of Alaska Anchorage and Stanford University.

Mabel Pike was an annual guest of Stanford's Native American Cultural Center (NACC) beginning in the 1990s. Most recently she visited Stanford early in Spring Quarter 2011 to spend two weeks at "Mabel's Table" with students in the NACC teaching beading and moccasin making. Current Stanford Native students plan to staff "Mabel's Table" in early April 2012 to perpetuate her memory by teaching each what they learned from Mabel!

---Denni Dianne Woodward